Rivian, one of Tesla’s big competitors, will soon produce an electric bicycle

Electric vehicle startup Rivian is working on an electric bicycle, Bloomberg reported. During a company meeting on Friday, CEO RJ Scaringe told Rivian employees that the company is working on a project with a “small group” of engineers. Whether Scaringe was referring to an electric motorcycle or a bicycle could not be confirmed, but Bloomberg reports that Rivian has patents for cycling components and designs. In the past, Scaringe has stated that Rivian wants to expand into the micro-mobility market.

The news that Rivian may be involved in an electric bicycle project comes the same week that the company also announced it was laying off about 6% of all its employees. Moreover, this is the second major corporate restructuring in less than 12 months.

The company said the decision was made to have the resources to focus on volume production of its R1T and R1S electric vehicles and, as a result, put Rivian on the path to long-term profitability. The CEO announced to employees on Friday that the company has pulled over more than it can chew, trying to grow too quickly.

But precisely for this reason, according to some commentators, the decision to try to penetrate the electric bicycle business even before making the vehicle business profitable risks being another sensational mistake.

In any case, the American site Engadget points out that the cycling market is getting a new youth also thanks to the popularity of electric bicycles. Electric bicycles consistently outsell electric cars and trucks. Trivially because producing them costs less and the audience of interested consumers is wider. In short, according to the American site, there is the possibility that Rivian could start making profits thanks to this new project.